


Charm, Distraction, and Complications

by completelyhopeless



Series: Detective Grayson and Forensic Batgirl Case Two [4]
Category: DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe, Case Fic, F/M, Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 05:59:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3436070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/completelyhopeless/pseuds/completelyhopeless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick continues his search for Stephanie with Amy. Barbara attempts to distract Tim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Charm, Distraction, and Complications

**Author's Note:**

> If I had any great ideas for this section, they all escaped me by the time I got to writing it. :(

* * *

“I swear he's going to go looking for her the moment you turn your back,” Dick said with a grimace, shaking his head as he looked up from where Tim had finally succumbed to his worry and fear and the stress it was putting on his body. The kid had fought tears but still broke down a bit before passing out. “Alfred, you don't have any sedatives around here, do you? Anything that will keep him here instead of out on the streets?”

“You know I should report you for that,” Amy said, and Dick grimaced.

“I fear Master Richard has a point,” Alfred said. “Young Timothy is very prone to escaping and is also enamored of detective work. He wants to follow in Richard's footsteps and join Bruce's agency.”

“Locking Tim up is probably the only way to keep him safe at this point,” Dick said, rubbing his head. “I'd send him to Bruce if Bruce wasn't out of town, and normally I wouldn't think he'd be in trouble staying here—”

“Only he is,” Alfred said with a grimace.

“You know what? He can come back to the lab with me,” Barbara said, and Dick felt relief wash over him. Barbara would take care of Tim, wouldn't fall for any of his possible tricks—Tim _was_ a good kid, but he was used to outsmarting adults and did it more often than he ever should—and Tim would be curious enough about her work that he wouldn't even realize he was being babysat.

“That is perfect. It's _awesome,_ even. Babs, you are officially the best.”

She grinned. “I know.”

“And Tim is a hundred pounds of dead weight when he's asleep,” Dick muttered, trying to get out from under the kid. “Um... a little help?”

Barbara frowned. “You can contort yourself while handcuffed to a pole and take out a killer who trains kids to be assassin while injured and yet you can't get out from under one teenager?”

“Adrenaline?”

She laughed, rolling her eyes at him as she did. He shrugged. For some reason, Tim was harder to maneuver around than that pole had been. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because he was drugged half out of his head at the time, too. He wasn't really feeling his own body's weight.

“I do have a teenage girl to find,” Dick reminded everyone. “Can we stop mocking me and get Tim up and off? I don't want to wake him, but I need to get back out there.”

“If there wasn't a girl at risk, I would so leave you where you are so you could get some sleep of your own,” Barbara told him, and he glared at her as she smiled. He really could have shoved Tim off, but the kid needed rest and letting him sleep—well, in part it might seem like cowardice, but it was a lot easier to leave him asleep than it was to explain where he was going, what he was going to do, and why Tim didn't get to come.

“That would be a bad idea. I don't want to know what Damian will do if he sees this. You know he already hates Tim.”

She grimaced. “Go. Make sure that you at least say hello to the problem child before you leave, though. He was looking for you earlier.”

* * *

“So...”

“I already apologized for the state of the car, right? It's far from the best one in the department, and if you'd rather go pick up yours, we can as long as we make a few stops along the way back to the station. I don't want to waste time, not with Stephanie's life on the line,” Dick said, turning onto a side street. He hated this neighborhood and didn't want to stay here long, but he needed to eliminate it. “Then again—my car is good camouflage for this area of the city. Get anything nicer and you'll get it stolen in an instant down here.”

Amy shook her head. “I lived in Blüdhaven. I understand the need for urban camouflage. It's my husband that doesn't.”

Dick looked over at her. “You mean he doesn't buy it as an excuse for you living in your car.”

“You _are_ a good detective.”

Dick laughed. “Not that good. I just happen to have an English surrogate father who has basically the same opinion of my car's hygiene despite spending his most of his time at a shelter in the same bad part of town.”

Amy smiled. “I see.”

“You can ask, too, if you want,” Dick said, parking in front of an apartment building. This place should have been condemned— _was_ condemned—but it was still standing because it wasn't worth tearing it down or building anything in its place. “People who meet Alfred usually have hundreds of questions. Especially if he called me Master Richard when they did.”

She shrugged before opening her door. “You have to admit that it doesn't really sound like something you'd use in normal conversation. It's too master-servant for that.”

“It's Alfred's way of showing affection.”

“You don't have a better answer than that?”

Dick climbed out of the car and shut the door behind him. He stopped to lean against it, hands on top of the roof. “I have theories, but to be honest, I never felt like over-analyzing it. I suppose I didn't want to look the gift horse in the mouth. Alfred and his shelter saw me through some bad times. I did not want to lose it. I needed it too much. I didn't care what Alfred called me.”

“And if I asked you about that?”

“It's not a secret. My parents were murdered. My aunt died as a result of domestic abuse. My guardian was a functioning alcoholic. I needed Alfred. And the shelter. Stabilizing forces,” Dick said, moving away from the car. “He is that—the shelter is that—for many people. I'm just one of them.”

“Was this girl Stephanie one of them?”

“Honestly, I don't know. Tim hasn't told me much about her, but I did get the impression he met her there. He used to spend most of his time there.” Dick let out a breath. “Things haven't been the same since Damian came into my life. That kid... he has a lot of issues, and unfortunately, that means I haven't been able to give Tim the same amount of my spare time as I used to.”

“You have spare time, Rookie? Since when does a cop have spare time?”

“You tell me. You're the one with a husband. And kids.”

Amy laughed. “Alright, you got me. We find ways to make time for our families. Our kids. If we don't, it's not worth being a cop. If you're doing it to protect your kids but you're never home... What's the point in it?”

“There isn't one,” Dick agreed. “And since you're going to ask—none of them are actually my kids. I suppose I'm only really old enough to maybe be Damian's father, but I'm not. I'm... a big brother at best. I fill in some of the gaps for a few of them. It's not much, but it's more than they had before.”

She nodded. “I get it. You want to explain why we're here? I'd rather not go in blind.”

“I'm going to introduce you to the squatters. They come and go in this place, but they know more about the neighborhood than anyone. If new people come in, they know. If someone leaves unexpectedly, they know. They don't talk to outsiders, though.”

“You mean cops.”

“No, I mean outsiders,” Dick said, grinning. “They know I'm a cop and they talk to me. They might even talk to you because you're with me.”

“Level with me, Grayson—are you showing me around the city and taking me to the spots no one knows about because you really want my help or is this part of a greater plan to piss off Gage and Bard?”

Dick stopped at the open door. “Does that matter?”

“No.”

“Then I think I'll let you figure it out for yourself, Detective Rohrbach.”

* * *

“Is that from the crime scene?”

“From _a_ crime scene,” Barbara said, smiling at Tim. “Not _the_ crime scene, the one Dick thinks Stephanie was at and the one you care about, but yes, it is a part of an on-going investigation. And I shouldn't talk about it.”

Tim gave her a look. “I can't believe this. Not only did Dick ditch me, but you're babysitting me and won't even tell me about your cases. You really think I am going to stay for this? I don't think so. I need to do something to help Stephanie. If I can't do it here, I... I need to leave.”

Barbara put a hand on his shoulder. “You know that Dick is doing everything he can to find Stephanie—”

“I can help.”

“You already have,” Barbara reminded the boy. She let out a breath and waved him over to the microscope. “This is something Dick wanted me to look at. He took it from one of the places you and he visited earlier.”

“He did? I don't remember that.”

“I didn't notice him slipping it into my pocket, either. I think that boy spent too many days learning magic tricks back in the circus,” Barbara said, though she knew there were several less innocent reasons why Dick might be good at slight of hand, and she had a feeling those were actually more likely the reason he had those skills. She didn't want to believe it, but Dick had grown up in one of the worst parts of town with an alcoholic guardian. She wouldn't be surprised if he'd occasionally pickpocketed to survive—or even for a case.

“I wish he'd teach me one of them. He doesn't talk much about the circus. I ask him about it, but he always starts a story and then changes the subject in the middle of it to distract me,” Tim said. He shook his head in disgust. “I always fall for it, too. It makes me so angry.”

Barbara frowned. “I thought the circus made Dick happy. Why would he avoid talking about it?”

Tim shrugged. “I don't know. I think it makes him happy until he remembers too much and then it doesn't. He's been promising to introduce me to the elephants for years, but he hasn't ever had time and Haly's hasn't been to Gotham in years.”

“It was supposed to be here not that long ago.”

“Yeah, but they canceled. Dick was bummed, and that Damian kid just made it worse by going on and on about how stupid and juvenile circuses were.”

Barbara snorted. “Has Damian even _been_ to a circus before?”

“Not that I know of. If he had, even he'd have to admit they're pretty cool. I hope when Haly's reschedules Dick can get time off to go.”

“And maybe you can take Stephanie with you.”

“Maybe. I don't know how much she'd like it. She's older, you know, and she might think that the circus is lame or something,” Tim said, frowning as he thought about it. Barbara looked at him and smiled, thinking the boy did not know how much he'd just given away. “Hey, would you go to the circus if Dick asked you to?”

“I like the circus with or without Dick,” Barbara said. “Though I admit I'm not a big fan of clowns. Something about them really bothers me.”

“With Dick as a friend?”

She laughed. “I suppose you have a point.”

Tim smiled back at her. “So, what did you find?”

* * *

“Okay, Rookie, fess up. Where did you get that unnatural charm?”

Dick laughed. “Unnatural?”

“Yes,” Amy said, folding her arms over her chest. “Everyone we've talked to today just seemed to melt when you turned that smile on. They were telling you things I wouldn't have thought they'd tell their own family, and you're a cop. They _know_ you're a cop. What's your secret?”

“I grew up in a circus,” Dick said, shrugging. “I've always been pretty friendly with people, even if people weren't friendly back. It's... a thing. I don't know.”

She gave him a look, and he shrugged. He didn't see why it mattered. He hadn't managed to get anything of use to them in all of those conversations, so it wasn't important. He would worry about it if it was actually useful, and it wasn't.

His phone rang, sparing him from any further discussion of his charm. “Grayson.”

“You should just answer your phone with 'Dick.' That would be fun.”

“For a fifth grader, maybe,” Dick said, shaking his head. He stopped to lean against his car. “I thought you'd left town and officially told me to go—and this is not a quote but a paraphrase because I won't repeat your kind of language in front of a lady—screw myself.”

Jason grunted. “Yeah, well, don't think I've started liking you or anything. That's not why I called.”

“I would never assume that. That would be like saying we got along, and that's not true. Heaven forbid you learn to tolerate me. Then who would I annoy? Apparently I've got some kind of unnatural charm that makes everyone like me. It's kind of creepy.”

“Dick.”

“That sounded more like an insult than my name. What's up?”

Jason hesitated for a moment, and Dick caught Amy watching him, but he held up a hand. He couldn't afford to lose his brother right now, not when he knew something was bothering him—not to mention this was the first time Jason had willingly spoken to him since Maroni died and his father was arrested.

“Jaybird, please.”

“I...” Jason's words turned into an incomprehensible mumble, and Dick figured he was swearing up a storm but he didn't need every word enunciated, either. “I think you'd better get over here.”

Dick grimaced. He let out a breath, trying to decide between his brother and Stephanie. Truth was, he was pretty much out of ideas as to where to find her, and Jason never called or wanted his help. Still, Stephanie was probably a witness to a murder and could be close to being murdered herself if she wasn't already dead. “How bad?”

“Don't be an idiot. I wouldn't call you unless it was the kind of bad that I needed your sorry ass for,” Jason muttered, and Dick could picture him running a hand through his hair in frustration and smoking up a storm at the same time.

“I'm told that part of my anatomy is not sorry at all,” Dick said, but he lacked the enthusiasm for the joke. “Where do you need me?”

Jason gave him an address and hung up. Dick looked over at Amy and let out a breath. “So... I have to go meet a pseudo-assassin. Is there some place I can drop you off before I go?”


End file.
